Hobbling Scholarship: A Librarian’s Perspective on Inequitable Access to Calls for Papers for Publication and Presentations

Author:

Hope Leman

Abstract

Those of us in the academic and library communities are at least somewhat familiar with the Open Access (OA) movement. Discussion (sometimes quite heated) about Open Access abounds in discussion lists in librarianship, in Twitter, and in the librarianship, science, and academia- related blogosphere. Until recently, the discussion has taken place mainly among those in the sciences and medicine and librarianship. But now historians and others in the digital humanities are increasingly joining in. Additionally, the last few years have seen such developments as the rise of “predatory publishers” (i.e. publishers that dupe scholars into agreements to publish that turn out to entail heavy fees for the scholars or their institutions) and pro-Open Access activity at the federal level in the US at the Congressional and White House levels. Open Access impassions people. The Open Access movement even has in the late activist Aaron Swartz what some call its first martyr. Clearly, this is a movement that matters. This article will focus on one aspect of that debate: the need for Open Access to apply to calls for papers (CFPs) for periodicals and conferences.